Hard to sneak things in. We had a music director who did and got reprimanded for anything outside of the LDS song book.
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Yes. You can find more in my bio post.
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I just got back from a performance of Handel's Messiah by our local premier ward, probably one of the three or four most powerful wards in TSCC. I always understood that "The Messiah" was shortened because of time constraints (which really don't exist). But, with the full libretto in hand, I looked at the parts omitted - 19 out of 53. It wasn't time which dictated the shortening, but
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They mishies do very little tracting these days in large part because few people are home during the day other than some on welfare or are shutins. Some years back, more than I care to count, I would do splits with missionaries and would get in almost every time. This was due to my ability to make small talk and my record of political campaigning. After all, one year I got 58 people in a row to e
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You are right. The clasped hands instead of the folded arms are a dead giveaway. By the way, the folding of arms is quite different from the prayer hands even in the Sistine chapel. Where did this folding of arms come from? I have long made a conscious effort to never fold my arms again in praying.
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In a similar vein, my bishop told me that everyone who he knows who ever left did so because either they were offended or were covering up a secret sin. He is very successful in the business world but I laughed inwardly. He missed the council and so missed my full explanation.
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No mormon ancestry though related to JS (ugh). Six of our twelve children were born before we joined and the rest would have come regardless. So none owed their existance to mormonism. I am in good health because I left moism.
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What about receptions a year later? This is the new format around here because the sealing is thousands of miles away. A reception should, IMHO, immediately follow the wedding. It should also be a feast, though the numbers may be few. One of the worst things I hated were the TSCC receptions with cake and punch and perhaps a few sandwiches in "cultural halls", with the wedding parties st
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I do not support a ward Christmas party and would not go. I will not attend any LDS function but am, nonetheless, in a quandary about whether to attend the baptism of a GD in two months. I fear she may be hurt if I do not attend and they live with us. I have convinced her to I only drink "good coffee" etc.
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1. TSCC breaks down marriages and foments a climate which actually results in more divorces. 2. TSCC teaches that marriage is not unconditional but only conditional so long as both parties are active in the church. Husband not "honoring his priesthood"? Grounds for divorce. 3. Unconditional love is required in marriage and that love must continue without condition of any kind and desp
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There is nothing in the Bible to indicate God favored polygamy. Indeed, there is, in the New Testament especially, encouragement for monogamy in that elders and deacons were only permitted one wife. Further, the stories relating to Abraham and to the jealousy between Leah and Rachel later that it polygamy created problems. We can note the change even before Christ as to discouraging multiple wive
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The real opportunity is to innocently answer some question by the person being visited in a way that raises questions in their mind about TSCC. Or you can insert such a question at an appropriate time. Done carefully the missionaries will not report the innocent question or answer upward but may begin to question things themselves.
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When our oldest son was a scout, beginning in 1981, the LDS troop had a non-member scoutmaster his whole time up through eagle. The troop was like the non-LDS troop you describe! I was a merit made counselor, not called by TSCC but asked by the scoutmaster. Indeed, I was asked to in 1979, before joining TSCC in 1980. This apparently does not happen today.
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Somewhere between 1981 and the 1990 changes, the law of chastity for men was changed from "wives" to "wife".
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1. The article incorrectly concludes that JS was wrongly jailed. 2. JS also wrote letters complaining about his lawyers despite the fact that they effectively saved his life. 3. I wonder what was paid to the guards to escape. Someone should make a true movie about the whole history. 4. Whatever JS drank in jail should be a best seller, surely someone put it in writing.
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Adam is a term for man and represents all mankind rather than a particular single being. The story in the garden is only an explanation for the fact that good and evil exist, not a literal history lesson. Everything prior to the flood is only meant alegorically. Once this is understood, the absurd attempt to create the fiction of the BoM, is self-evident. Though non-LDS fundamentalists hold to
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I never heard of opposition to evolution until I was in college and was surprised to hear someone who believed in Adam and Eve as literal. The next time I heard opposition was in my senior year at MIT when a young woman I dated, who was a graduate student at Harvard, was having a problem with the issue because she was brought up in a church which didn't believe in evolution. I later belonged to a
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The ONLY group of people who find a need to believe literally in the Tower of Babel are LDS because of the Jaredites! The story of the Jaredites was stolen from an old tale about only two catse left who killed each other starting with each other' tail, and which probably came from some old Greek myth. IOWs JS didn't even think up a new tale.
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Consider a discussion an opportunity of showing them the kind of proofs above.
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I met Monson years ago. Not impressed. The first apostle I spoke with was GBH. Not impressed. The worshipping of "prophets" is sickening/
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I was bullied and in each case eventually slugged the perp. They admitted that they deserved it and got punished. My mother told me that they bullied me because they were jealous.
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1. Santa doesn't exist. 2. Family traditions are great fun but gift-giving should not be extravagant. 3. Christmas trees and Santa should NOT be in church though ward Christmas parties include both. Ugh. 4. I heartedly agree that all should celebrate as they wish including some Jewish friends who also celebrate Christmas because it is fun. This is fitting because where we live, the high Jewish
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More proof that following the WoW actually kills people. It also kills because coffee reduces depression and can prevent auto deaths where drivers fall asleep because they won't drink coffee. The WoW is no benign doctrine but one that endangers lives and happiness.
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The concept of God testing one's faith is absolutely not what is in the Book of Job. Rather, it is not God who tests our faith. While JS constantly tested the faith of his followers, just as modern dictators do, such testing to keep his followers in check was pure evil. That God allows natural events to test our faith does not mean God is testing us. Indeed, it is not even Satan "testing
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1. God did not throw Job "under the bus". Rather, it shows that God does not simply prevent bad things from happening to good people. 2. Please note that God rewarded Job at the end.
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I spoke to my wife and two of our children earlier but only told the rest of the family after I resigned. They are still unwilling to look into what I wrote and one even said I must be wrong as it was not possible for me to be right. So, I still have a wife, ten of our children, and 22 grandchildren still going.
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I just know I will lose. No hope for winning. BUT it would be nice to win.
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If pushed into sending in papers, merely provide information such that you will not be called. That is, put in an essay as to why you don't agree on some doctrine and won't be able to teach it. Or, drink coffee and refuse to repent of it. Seriously, such will, if you keep your position, make a bishop refuse to sign the papers.
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ON LEAVING THE MORMON CHURCH - BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN Though the genesis of my leaving the LDS Church partly pre-dated my even joining, I am beginning this narrative in the summer of 2011 and what was earlier is included in my remarks before “the Sanhedrin” as I set forth below. In the summer of 2011, Bro. R….. was assigned as our home teacher. As he finished the lesson, I told him I
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